Blade Arts Online: Save States
by Lunarfeather
Summary: When Saito received the newest game for the VRMMO systems, he considered himself one of the luckiest people in the world to receive one of the 1000 beta-test copies. Now that the game has been officially released, he and 10000 others must battle with their lives in order to escape the game of death called Blade Arts Online. (OC story, AU)
1. Save State 1: Trapped

Save State 1: Trapped

Tokyo, Japan 2030

"Welcome to Tokyo Station, please exit on your right and watch the gap between the train and the platform!" Came the unnaturally happy voice over the intercom. I stepped off the train and rushed up to the stairs before anybody else, hurrying to get home.

"Slow down!"

"Watch it!"

I ignored the repeated protests of my rushing, determined to be the first out of the artificial cleanliness of the underground world we call the High Speed Railway. Today was going to be the product of an extreme amount of luck and waking up too early in the mornings.

I walked into the alley where the door was located to get into my apartment, dashing up the stairs I made it to my front door before shoving the keys roughly into the keyhole and twisting, barely allowing enough time to yank the keys back out and hastily drop them back into my bag. I ran into my room and didn't bother locking the door; nobody was home and my two sisters wouldn't be back until 10 O'Clock tonight. Dropping my bag into the corner of my rather unremarkable room, a chair, a bookcase, a desk, and a bed were all that were included. However I also had a large computer on my desk, I had spent a few months of pay to get that. And next to it was a curious sight, a pair over what looked like over-sized headphones with a band running across them and two metallic bracelets.

This was a Trans-Wave, a device designed to access the fantasy world we all call virtual reality, and today was the launch day of the first game of the company that released the Trans-Wave, Argus. And one of the lucky 500 who were allowed to beta-test the game 3 months before its release date? Yours truly. Today is the official release.

12:00 P.M. The games just started time for me to get started I suppose, but first something to eat at least. No point in getting on during the opening ceremonies. I went to the kitchen to make something quickly, in the end I settled for a microwave dinner, I was never much for cooking in the first place.

12:30 P.M. The opening ceremonies should be over. I slipped on both of the metallic bracelets, lied down on my bed, and slipped the headphones on, the strap covering in front of my eyes. After quickly completing a systems check along with a calibration, I said the words that would send me into the world of virtual reality.

"Full-Dive… On!"

I felt my senses begin to numb before they were yanked away completely, suddenly I was taken into total darkness for an instant before seeing two options in front of me.

"Previous character file found. Name: Saito Would you like to continue with this file?"

Two option buttons floated up in front of me, I selected yes. Suddenly a dropping sensation took over until my avatar formed… in the air 20 feet off the ground. Normally this would've been a serious situation, but then again this was virtual reality.

"Movement skill: Impact Roll, Activate." and as I hit the ground my body rolled along, neutralizing the impact.

I looked around and finally took the time to appreciate the image in front of me. I had fallen in the middle of town, the streets already housing some people who had set up shop and made up their minds to be merchants until they had enough money to advance. Others were walking around wearing the beginner armor, myself included of course. It was a simple tunic along with a one-handed sword and a pair of what looked like wool pants.

The other thing I noticed was that my buddy list and item list had been deleted and wiped clean of anything, normal I suppose.

"Hey! You there, want to party up with us?" The voice came from a male who was only a few feet away; he was accompanied by two others. Though their facade seemed sound enough I decided not to party with them.

"No thanks, I'll be fine." and I quickly headed off to the fields where I knew there would already be people grinding, the difference was, I knew how to use Blade Arts, they didn't.

Blade Arts were pre-programmed abilities, similar to skills in other games if you will. And in this game, knowing how to use them was the difference between a player and a sightseer.

-Lesser Plains-

*Pachink!*

The sound of my sword hitting off of the Armored Boars body sounded through the field. I was the only one out here, playing solo was something that was frowned on my others after all. Despite the higher danger of death, the higher exp, gold, and drop rate were all scaled as well. However it was looked upon to be a selfish style of play, where the solo player was nothing but a self-serving piece of trash. Like I cared…

The boar came charging at me again, easily flying by as I sidestepped it before the sword I was holding lit up blue.

**"Blade Skill: Rising Eagle."**

Assisted by the system, I brought the sword from behind me upwards in a slash, jumping and pushing the force into my attack. The boar squealed and then burst into small multicolored particles before disappearing. A window popped up where the boar had dissolved, showing the any rewards that might have come from it. Another window popped up next to me however.

"Quest Complete 'Special' Hunting Contest. Please report to the NPC that you received this quest from to find the results." I read out loud, the deal was to hunt monsters, the difficulty of each monster worth a certain number of points, the person with the most points in the end, wins. A timer was next to the notice itself, showing the limited time to collect the reward. I still had twelve hours to collect it. Well best to collect it now, especially if my family decides to suddenly disconnect me. I started to walk back to the town when two players emerged from the trees.

"Hey partner..." one began.

"We see that you've been hunting for a long time now, but it seems like you could unload some things."

I looked to each as they spoke, these were the lowest of the low, choosing to laze around while others did the hard work for items, then rob them after they were done.

"I don't think so; maybe the two of you were mistaken?"

The two walked forward in response and drew their swords, proof of my suspicions.

"Don't fuck with us kid." he pointed his sword threateningly at me, his partner doing the same.

"Just hand over everything you have and we'll let you go..."

I didn't waste time trying to warn the two; instead I drew out my sword and dashed forward.

**"Blade Skill: Duo Raid."**

The two attacks disarmed both, leaving them open to attack, though that was before they started running away.

"Trash..." I muttered, running after them I dispatched both with twin strikes to their back, the two burst into multicolored crystals much the same as the boar. I found it strange, seeing as players usually were left with some sort of remains, ah well, it was a new game after all; time to go collect my reward for the quest.

"You have placed first in the competition; your reward is the Acuminous Blade."

I looked at the ranking window in surprise, to think I had finished as the top-placed player in the results. In any case, the new blade dropped down into my hands. I pulled it out of the sleek brown sheathe, the sun reflected off the simple white blade. I checked the stats and was happy to find that they were quite a bit above my current sword's, but what really surprised me was that this sword could also be upgraded a total of 10 times, the same amount as the Anneal Blade that I was currently using.

"Well time to log out." I overheard a few people near me; I suppose it was time for me to be logging out too. I brought up the menu to log out; at first I thought that I was simply looking in the wrong places. Options, settings, but no matter where I looked in the menu there wasn't anywhere that I could find a log out button, was it a system glitch?

A window popped up next to me, in fact, windows were popping up next to everybody.

"Mandatory teleportation in 30 seconds...?" Everywhere around me people were scratching their heads, then all of sudden I was in a plaza. I recognized the place as the starting point for all who had just begun the game; everybody was forming around me, small flashes of blue indicating that another person had arrived. What was this all about? Could it have anything to do with the mysteriously missing Log Out button?

"Welcome players..." A voice came from nowhere. "I suppose by now that you've all found that there is no Log Out button." The obviously male voice stated calmly.

"Let me reassure you now..." I could hear sighs of relief, but I didn't relax just yet. "That this is not an error.

The people who had just let out a sigh of relief froze in place.

"I repeat, this is **not **and error, this is a feature of Blade Arts Online. You will not be able to log out until this game is cleared."

Screams of outrage were among the responses.

"So what! We'll just be logged out by our families anyways!"

The voice chuckled. "Oh just so you know, if you try to log out you will be immediately injected with a poison that will result in death within 5 minutes."

Poison?! How would he do that? Then I realized.

"The bracelets..." The bracelets must have a small compartment in them, that's why they were included...

Skeptics were still among the crowd.

"How do we even know you're telling the truth!" shouted one angry voice.

"How...?" various windows popped up in the air. They were airing... news reports...

"These will tell you, news stations have already begun reporting what has happened, an announcement has been made to the families of all who are logged in to this game. Unfortunately, 247 players have already disconnected from this game, and their lives..."

The silence hung eerily in the air before it was pierced by the sound of screaming. That was the spark; all of a sudden mass hysteria broke out among the crowd

"Don't be kidding with us!"

"That's not funny!"

The protests went on and on, of course I knew there was no way this was a joke, anything of this magnitude would be real. And so I posed the question that I knew nobody else would.

"What happens when our HP goes down to zero?"

Through the chaos, it seemed that the nearest person had heard him, they froze, and everybody froze with them. Waiting for the answer.

"You die."

Saito fell to his knees, but not from fear, from guilt. Those two he had killed on the plains today... had he taken them out for real? Were they simply two among the 247 that had already died...? He had snuffed them out without a second thought back then, but now...

"N-no way…"

This person had essentially made it so that they were stuck, sow the seeds of fear among us and then break it that we have to clear this game to get out…

"These 100 floors of this castle that I have built, Aincrad, will be your home until you have mustered the strength to defeat it!"

100 floors... how long would that take, even with 10,000 players certainly it would be a substantial period of time...

"And now, I give you all a parting gift."

Windows once again popped up next to everybody, the system opening up our inventory, a new item flashed orange.

"Reflective Mirror...?"

The item was automatically activated the moment the inventory opened, it formed in my hand and for a moment I saw my real face in it before a bright flash was emitted. When I could open my eyes, I thought that I had been teleported into another game. All the people around me looked different than before, their height, weight, and in some slightly more disturbing cases, gender, had all changed. I looked at my hand and saw not the artificially perfect fingernails and unmarred hand of my digital avatar, but the slightly longer fingers and scar-touched back of my own hand.

The speakers blared forth one final time.

"Now you are all of your true appearance, do not play this game, live it! Live in this world! I wish you all luck in your quest to clear this castle and return to your own reality!"

And with that, the speakers that had appeared in the air disappeared, the oppressive atmosphere was gone, but the panic it had incited had yet to explode, and I did not intend to be here when it did. I weaved in and out of the crowd, finally finding a place where I slipped out of the plaza. I knew my destination, the next town; there I would be able to find the stronger monsters that everybody would be scared to grind on now that they were in danger of dying.

And I, who have already killed two… I am not going to taint others with my presence. This sick game will be played alone, and it I die then that will be that, however…

"I refuse to lose, to this game, to this world, and most importantly, to myself…"

-Save State 1: End-


	2. Save State 2: Beater-Murderer

Save State 2: Beater

It's been a month since the this death-game, Blade Arts Online, had begun. Since then 1000 other players have died, leaving the number at somewhere around 8750 players by my count. Today I've finally found the door to the boss room. After the preparations are finished I'll be heading off to fight it, it shouldn't be a problem with the boss being level 10 and me being level 16.

Currently I was getting the necessary items, I intended to fight by myself, but I did not intend to simply commit suicide.

"10 Red Potions, 5 Cure Crystals, 2 Teleport Crystals, and 2 Heal Crystals please."

The player-merchant stared at me, I knew I should have just bought these items at separate stores… precious few players have enough money to pay for even half of those items. It was time to tell a small lie.

"It's for my party, I was just sent out to buy the supplies." I said, fake smile plastered to my face.

"Ah I see, just a moment, I need to find the items in my inventory..."

The trade window popped up between us, not long later I was walking down the street towards the armory section of the market, I still had one available upgrade left for my Acuminous Blade, and I intended to use it. I decided to use an NPC smith for multiple reasons, first of all the level of people were low enough that there were few as skilled as the NPC smith's. Second of all, even if I could find a person more skilled, the kind of publicity my Acuminous Blade +9 would cause is something I did not want. RPG players were typically the jealous type, and in a game where having the better equipment would literally be the line between life and death...

I walked bit bit faster towards my destination, hopefully I would clear the floor before dark. Lost in my thoughts, I was suddenly knocked down by something from behind. I immediately pushed up with my arms but was held down by the weight of my attacker.

"What do you want?"

"Just some time To-to."

I sighed, of course it would be her...

"What do you want... Argo?"

Argo the Rat, a famous information dealer in this world, and even more rarely, a female player. Though the gender ratio seemed to be nearly equal the first day of the game, once everyone's true appearance had been revealed, the ratio had slipped to somewhere at about 8:2 in a male to female ratio. In any case, Argo was one of the few people that had earned a place on my friend list, for like me she was a beta tester.

"Oh you know, the usual, there's a rumor going on that a certain player has found the boss room..."

"Oh is there now? Or is this like that time you told me that rumor about a special sword being awarded for the event just to get me to admit that I had it?"

Argo merely chuckled in response, the whisker marks on either side of her face only emphasizing the half smile, half arrogant sneer she had on her face.

"Oh To-to… would you consider parting with the information that I know you have?"

"I'm going to defeat the boss today Argo, what do you think? The data will soon become useless to you anyways."

"Ah yes, but not everybody knows that." She winked at me. I sighed as I pulled up the map data and prepared to trade it to her. The miniature version of the map appeared next to a confirmation message and who I was trading it to.

I hit the small blue circle to confirm the data trade. "You owe me for this one."

"No I don't, remember that time we went to eat at Heifat? I was the one who payed."

"You mean you payed for your portion of the meal, that doesn't count."

"Of course it does silly, what kind of guy lets a girl pay for a meal?"

"When the girl has twice as much money as the guy…" I muttered mutinously.

She kicked me in the ankle. "What was that?"

I hissed as the pain jolted up my leg. "N-Nothing, but seriously, don't start distributing that information until after I've left alright?"

Argo just shook her head indifferently as she got off, oblivious of the stares that we had attracted. "Whatever, once you defeat the boss a notification will be released to all the players anyways."

"Yes, but just to be sure that you don't."

She looked pointedly at me. "Just be sure not to die, it would get boring around here without you To-To."

The look on my face could only be described as cold and icy as I replied. "I won't."

-Floor 1 Dungeon-

The large overbearing doors to the boss room are right in front of me as I walk slowly over the uneven ground; the hallway lit only with the dim glow of torches. I've only had to use one healing potion so far to get past the dungeon itself, now it was time to face the boss. According the information I have, the boss should summon minions that attack as I'm fighting it, the minions are basically suicide mobs, designed to attract attention while the boss finishes you off. The boss itself was called "Midgard, the Serpent King." A large snake-like boss that had two arms while slithering around on it's body, wielding a long sword and a buckler, once it's hp was reduced by half it would begin to try to whip you with it's tail, and switch out to a single curved dagger.

"Well, time to get this started." I pushed open the surprisingly light door with my knuckle before walking in. The previously dark room was lit up brightly as the walls glowed in a blue color and the torches in the hallway lit up, before my eyes was the boss itself, 3 large hp gauges next to it.

I ran up to engage immediately before 2 of the suicide mob's got in my way. Not bothering to use a Blade Art, I dispatched the two with twin slashes to the head. The boss in the meantime was drawing it's sword and buckler before charging at me using a blade skill, Dash Slash.

"Blade Skill: Rising Eagle." I knocked the sword of the boss up and rose along with it. Looking down I could see that the boss was stunned after having it's weapon knocked away. The various lights in the room gleamed off my Acuminous Blade as I used my next attack.

"Blade Skill: Falling Eagle." As I reached the zenith of my leap, my sword came crashing down like a guillotine, shaving off half of a health bar on the boss. The attack also had the added bonus of bringing me back to the ground, where I could move freely. Running up to attack once more, I used a normal attack to see what would happen next. The buckler and my sword clanged off one another before the boss' sword came swinging around once again, I saw it coming and was prepared for the hit, but nothing could have prepared me for the impact that knocked me back over 10 feet.

"W-What the hell...?" I managed to cough out, in VR games the sense of pain was cut off, the same applied for when you were hunting in the field, the most that I had felt was maybe a numbing effect when I was struck, this time it felt like I had been hit in the chest by a hammer. The words of our imprisoner echoed in my head.

Do not play this game, live it! Live in this world!

"Fine then..." I stood despite the throbbing pain in my chest. "Let's live." I rushed the boss again, this time using the same rush skill.

"Blade Skill: Dash Slash." I accelerated at an unnatural pace before cutting the boss and appearing behind it. Turning around as I did, it whipped it's sword, attempting the same hit on my chest as before, only for me to slash upwards and redirect it.

"Blade Skill: Great Cross." Two slashes, one horizontal and one vertical blossomed across the boss' chest as a result of my attack, reducing it's hp by another half a bar. Pressing my advantage, I proceeded to use the skill again, cutting open two new wounds and lowering the boss' hp to half. That was when things began to go wrong. Immediately the immense hiss from the boss forced me back a few steps, I could see it's teeth gleaming in it's mouth. The tail whipped around at an impossible speed and knocked me back once again. Stunned, I could do nothing as the boss drew it's single long dagger and prepared to stab down.

'How foolish of me to think I could defeat something like this solo...' I thought, the gleaming dagger dripped with a bright green venom. My health bar was now hovering just slightly below a third, an attack like this would completely drain it even if I was above half. I closed my eyes as the dagger rushed down...

*CLANG* A rush of wind came from behind me as the deafening noise of metal clashing resonated throughout the boss room.

"Who is-" I stopped talking as a fist came to impact my face.

"Why the hell did you think it would be a good idea to take this thing on yourself you dumbass?!"

The figure standing in front of me was tall, almost 6 feet in height. In his hands was a large two handed sword, undoubtedly what had deflected the dagger from impaling me just now. His blonde hair was a mess from how he had run here and lay flat on his blemish free head.

"Xin... it's none of your business if I chose to come alone."

Xin was another solo player who I had met about a week into the game, he had challenged me to a duel because of our disagreement in how to take on a field boss. In fact it was my first duel in the game. Duel's were rare considering that if you died you would die in real life, and since a critical hit could send a player into the red zone in one hit, nobody wanted to risk it.

"Like hell it isn't, you could've died just now if not for me!"

"Then it would have been my decision."

Then another voice came from behind, this time a female one.

"Oh don't be like that To-To, you should've seen how fast he ran to get here."

I turned to see Argo, cool as ever, standing right behind us. She was dressed in her battle gear, a yellow cloak that covered to halfway down her legs. This time, a pair of claws gleamed from under he sleeves.

"Don't tell me you're both here to fight..."

At this point the boss had recovered from Xin's repelling of it's attack and was now charging back at us, two of the suicide mobs had respawned and were charging with it.

"Of course we are." they both replied.

Well... I knew that Argo was only 3 levels below me, still plenty to fight this boss, and Xin wasn't a pushover from what I had found out from out duel.

"Just don't get in the way you hear?"

They both simply smirked in response. Argo dashed forward, quickly dispatching both of the mobs with what I recognized as the Blade Skill Bloody Storm Xin and I ran past her.

"You distract him." I said.

"No you."

The argument continued until we reached the giant serpent. It swung down with it's dagger, intending to crush both of us… and missed as we pushed off each other's shoulders. From both sides we produced a pincer attack. He opened with a vertical slash, I flipped off his back to take two stabs at the beast's face; he continued to slash horizontally as the beast slumped down completely open as it's last sliver of hp left as I came down to finish it off.

"Blade Skill: Falling Eagle."

I took the last slash at the head, directly down the middle, splitting it open before the snake burst into hundreds of thousands of multicolored shards.

"We did it…"

The silence was deafening after the loud hisses of the boss.

"Congratulations!" A mechanical voice burst out as windows appeared next to Argo, Xin, and me, displaying the rewards for clearing the floor boss, the awards were substantial for all of us, having finished off the boss with only the three of us, though a large majority becoming mine because of the damage I had dealt.

"To-To! You better share those!"

I sighed, count on Argo to think of the drops after a battle like that. A new smaller window popped up next to me.

"Congratulations, you got the last attack bonus…" I read from the window. Looking further down I found the item given for the dealing the last attack.

Reaper's Blessing

It was a simple ring silver ring with a black stone adorning the center of it, nothing very remarkable in particular. I watched as the other's looked at what they had received from defeating the boss, something else worth mentioning is that I had leveled up twice from the enormous amount of experience I had received, now putting me at level 18.

"Hey, are you guys done looking at the loot? I'm going to open up the portal to the next floor, soon people will be flooding this room because of the system notifications."

The two looked up at me before rushing over, well in Xin's case walking over, in Argo's, jumping onto me as she approached.

"Well then let's hurry up and get to the next floor, you can fill me in on any information I'm missing before we get there."

I agreed and started towards the stairs that lead to the next floor before stopping as I realized what Argo had said.

"Wait, we? Let me make this clear, I'm a solo player, and by no means am I planning to give that up now. There are reasons that you wouldn't understand."

The two stared at me apprehensively, really it was kind of creepy how in sync they were with that kind of thing...

"If you think we're letting you go it alone after the stunt you pulled today then you're crazy." Xin said. Argo just added to the argument.

"I second that motion, if we let you go alone there's no doubt you be completely reckless and we'll have to come save you again you dope." I stared at her, since when did Argo care?

"After all it would be a waste to lose my best source of information." She added, but it seemed a bit hasty to me.

"You guys... I appreciate your concern, I really do, but right now... it's just not the right time. I swear I won't take this kind of reckless action again alright?"

The two were mulling it over when I heard a sound from the entrance from the entrance to the hallway, it seemed that the regular players had arrived. There were well over 40 of them, if I had to guess these were the people that Argo had told about the boss before I had gotten here, it seemed to be a full raid group. There were people of all different variations, though they seemed to be lead by a blue haired male at the front.

"What happened here?" he asked immediately as he reached us.

"Don't you think it would be a better idea to introduce yourselves first? It's common courtesy."

He didn't seem annoyed at my response, just slightly more wary. "My name is Durto, I'm the leader of this raid group, we all received the message that the boss had been defeated... and can I assume it was you people?"

"You can. Is there any problem with that?"

The group seemed to freeze at my response, I could tell that they wanted to say something but none of them dared to. Indifferent I began to walk to the teleporter when a voice called out.

"Wait a minute! How could you three beat the boss so easily, unless of course you're all those Beta-Testers!"

If you had dropped a virtual pin on the ground the sound would have echoed throughout the room. Then the mumbles began among the group, many of them were giving us suspicious stares, I had no problem with this kind of thing, but if Argo and Xin were caught up in it...

"Only I am a tester, these two were simply following me." I plead that the two behind me wouldn't say anything, sending them a silent message with a glance.

The original accuser, a man with orange hair was all fired up. "Well then you should just distribute your items to all the people here right now! You're one of those people who just left all us beginners tied up at the beginning, and left all on your own to level up and become stronger!"

"You could have picked up a guide book at any store, it's not my responsibility to look after your negligence."

"Even so, you could have at least told people the basics, even Durto admitted he was a Beta but at least he helped all of us out! You, you're no better then a murderer!" He swung his arm in a wide arc towards the leader of the group.

I felt something inside me snap. A murderer he said... I wasn't a...

Lowest of the low.

I was.

Trash

The broken sound of insane laughter echoed through the room, I only realized it was me when I stopped.

"A murderer you say... you're probably right, after all I was the one who killed two people on the first day. I'm one of those dirty Beta's that you hate so much. That's right, being one of the people who actually played the game on the beta-test I wanted to keep those quests for myself. Those other people? They didn't even know how to level, I was the one who cleared the floors and became stronger then anybody else on the beta-test."

A collective gasp ran throughout the room at the revelation.

"That's right, I know the layout of the upper floors, the monsters, quests, items, anything there is to know. If I had given this kind of information to the public at the beginning what do you think would have happened?"

This was the right thing to do, it would take the blame off many of the other Beta's in the game...

"Y-You...! That's despicable, how could you do that!"

This way I could take the hate of all the other players without burdening the others...

"A beta-tester and a cheater... a Beater!"

A name for my kind? Even better. "Beater... sounds good, from now on don't get me confused with the other amateurs, I'm a Beater."

I headed to the doors to the next floor, not looking back at Argo and Xin, unable to meet their eyes.

I'm sorry...

I opened up the doors, the eyes of all of the player's on me, the crest of the Blade Art Online game in front of me. I pushed the doors closed with a resolute sounding bang and the crest lit up blue, teleporting me to the next floor of this death filled tower...

-Save State 2: End-


	3. Save State 3: Problems

Stage 3: Problems

April 1st, 2030

This is the third month that we've been trapped in this game, so far we've managed to clear up to the 4th floor, a pace that came to about three weeks for one floor. A product of many being overly cautious and over leveling.

I've been using the same weapon since floor 1 even now it's the best weapon I've been able to find. So far I've been soloing on the furthest we've gotten in the dungeon, now dubbed the Front Lines. Currently I was walking down the path to the 4th floor dungeon. In actuality I hadn't stopped by the town even once yet. The dungeon, a deep cave this time, hosted many reptile-type monsters that would carry corrosion-type poison. As a result many people were reluctant to venture into a dungeon where their hard won equips and items were at risk.

"Hey, you there! Are you entering the dungeon?"

The speaker was a man at the side of the road, judging by his steel equipment he was also a clearer.

"Yes, what of it?"

"You'd better not, the word is that they're getting closer and closer to the boss room, they found a path that's infested with those lizard type monsters that corrode your equipment."

I ignored him, he was one of the typical clearers who only helped out when it was convenient for them. The kind that when it came down to risking their lives, would never do it.

Continuing into the dungeon itself, I found a monster, a Ruins Lizard right by the entrance. Immediately it spat a steaming purple-colored liquid at me which I promptly dodged.

"Blade Skill: Lateral Eagle"

I rushed forward with my sword pointed at the mob's body, inflicting a fair amount of damage with a slash a quarter the length of it's body. Wheeling around just in time to see it lunge at me with it's black spiked tail.

*clang!*

The sound from the tail and he sword reflecting off one another echoed through the air, using the momentum from the impact, I transferred into another attacks to finish it off.

"Blade Skill: Flowing Eagle!"

Pivoting on my right foot, I landed a cut that ran the length of the creature's body. It froze for a moment before bursting into multicolored shards, and the typical window showing rewards popped up.

Not bothering to look at the list, I started down a fork that I knew from previous excursions lead deeper into the dungeon

"A path infested with monsters…" Sounded interesting if you asked me, though I don't think it would be wise to try to go it alone… or rather there were certain people that wouldn't let me... I called up my menu before going to my friend list, selecting the only two names on there and hitting call. Soon after, two windows popped up in front of me, showing the faces of the two people whom I have attempted to contact.

"Argo, Xin you two coming with me on a dungeon run?" I said, wasting no time. The two seemed surprised at my offer to say the least. Ever since the first floor the most I had offered them was to meet up or "eat" a meal together, and never had I invited them to go into a dungeon with me.

"Well... solo life finally get too boring for you Saito?" Xin teased.

"Of course not idiot, I promised I wouldn't get into any reckless situations without you two and now I'm telling you." I responded. "I'm on my way to the 4th floor dungeon where there's supposed to be a large amount of mobs."  
"A dangerous situation? I didn't expect you to actually keep that promise, knowing you I thought you just blew it off."

I kept myself from cutting the connection in frustration. "Well I have kept the promise, so are you two coming or not?"

Argo, surprisingly enough, was the one who gave me a straight answer.

"Of course we're coming To-To, just give us an hour or two to get there."

And though Xin didn't say anything, I knew that he would be coming as well. Not bothering to waste anymore time I said goodbye and cut the connection. No point in sitting around until they came here after all...

- Sometime Later-

"Blade Skill: Lateral Eagle."

Another of the Reptilian Guard in front of me froze on all fours and burst into shards. Two more rounded from the back, I wasn't going to be able to react in time thanks to the delay from my Blade Skill, this was going to hurt…

*Fzzzt… shhhh*

I opened my eyes to see the two knights had disappeared into shards, and a smirking Argo right behind them.

"Now now To-To, how careless of you to let two mobs behind you like that. I thought you were a veteran of this game?"

My sigh of exasperation could have been heard from a few meters away. "I wasn't careless Argo, I was surrounded by five of them after taking on the mobs aggravated by two other players who couldn't handle them…"

Now of course she didn't need to know that four of them were mine in the first place, but that's not need to know right now…

"Don't even try to lie, you're completely transparent."

Scratch that, apparently you learned to differentiate between truths and lies in her line of business. Instead I tried to change the subject.

"Did you see Xin on the way here?"

She tried to hide her snickers behind her sleeves but failed spectacularly. "Beats me where he is, he was too slow on the way in so I left him behind."

I mentally kicked myself for even thinking that a slow two-handed sword user like Xin could ever keep up with somebody who emphasized swiftness and dexterity, a claw user like Argo.

"Well should we go find him or not?" Argo asked me with a mischievous smirk on her face, typical of the player labeled, The Rat.

I debated the options in my head, we could go ahead and leave Xin to find us himself and possibly get lost by himself and save ourselves the trouble of having to wait for him; or we could go back and find him and have one more pair of eyes, and more importantly another damage dealer, to watch our backs. If it was just me I would just go alone, but because I had Argo with me…

"Let's go back and find Xin." I decided. "An extra pair of hands to help could be pivotal in this game."

I made up and excuse quickly, there was no way I was admitting to Argo that I was concerned for her safety. Chances were she would just yell at me anyways though.

"Hmmm… you're no fun today To-To… Fine, let's go find the big lummox himself."

I chuckled, surprisingly enough, except for those moments when the two confronted me together they didn't get along at all. Everything from their fighting style to their taste in food differed.

"You say it like he's the devil, even I had to admit that he wasn't that bad… most of the time anyways…"

And like I predicted, Argo instantly exploded into a rain of protests, heaping verbal abuse on Xin, who'd as this point wasn't even around to hear her.

"He's so stuck up I can't even believe the little twerp! Did you know he said that he accused claws of being a "girly" weapon?! We'll see how girly they are when they dig into his throat!"

Various death threats and insults followed, none of which need to be repeated. We followed the path back until we heard the sounds of battle, coupled with Xin's voice.

"Well we know he's up ahead…" I remarked sarcastically.

"No kidding, I can hear him yelling from here."

"He has a pair of lungs I'll give the guy that…" Wait a minute, yelling? Why would Xin be yelling if he was fighting a mob? Unless…

"Argo let's go!" I started forward, rounding the corner in a skid, Argo right on my heels. What I saw disgusted me from the pure senselessness of it.

Xin himself had a cut on his cheek and several in various places. Two players were in front of Xin, both were holding swords and both sporting wounds, obviously from Xin's large two-handed sword... Player-Killers

Normally all disputes could be handled by talking, even when talking wasn't enough, duels were a solution where you didn't have to kill. However there were people who had no grudge against any people, they simply played to kill in this lawless game. Hence, Player Killers.

I began to rush the pair, Argo speeding ahead with her superior Dexterity stat, she quickly launched a throwing blade at one of the two

males, cutting into his arm, before striking out with the six hit claw Blade Skill Furious Talon normally six hit's would be a mid-level skill, next to impossible to obtain for this low level, but claw skills specialized in large numbers of hits to critical area's to make up for a lack of strength. The skill was expertly timed and aimed, to the point where Argo inflicted enough damage to bring him down to exactly red health, and cut off the straps of his armor.

In the mean time the other was smart enough to try to take out Argo while she was recovering from the

Blade Skill Delay. His sword swung down in a likely fatal arc... until it met with mine in a clash of sparks.

"Not so fun now that you're the one's outnumbered is it? Xin, I'll let you do the honors." I whipped my sword up, causing his to fly out of his hands before activating a different type of skill.

"Physical Blow Skill: Wolf Strike." A simple sequence of two punches was activated, first an attack to his stomach, then an uppercut to his face, stunning him and lining him up for Xin's follow up. He ran around me as the guy was knocked back and slashed twice. As the man landed, his helmet and breastplate split open.

Xin looked down at the both of them. "Still want to fight? Not as fun if you're the ones outnumbered is it?" the two on the ground quickly got up and started running, they wouldn't escape if I was watching... I prepared to chase after them until Argo caught my arm.

"Just leave them..."

"But..." the look in her eyes asked me to stop. "Fine..." Instead I turned to Xin, reaching opening up my inventory before selecting a healing potion. "Hey, take this, those injuries aren't serious so you don't have to waste a crystal on them."

Xin stared at the bottle in my hand before accepting it with a quick thanks, pouring the contents into his mouth, his health bar rising back up to maximum as the small red cuts disappeared.

"Xin..." I began. "What happened? How did those 2 PK'ers find you so easily? They usually never enter dungeons."

"Well it began when someone couldn't wait a few minutes before rushing off..." he glared atArgo who tried her best to look at least a little bit guilty. "When I was on the path to the dungeon I knew there was somebody behind me, I didn't bother finding out who they were because I assumed they were clearer's just like us."

Up until this point the story made sense, what I was concerned about was afterwards. "How did they injure you like that? Those two were nothing but small fry, at least 8 levels or so below us." No matter what kind of insults we peppered him with, the undeniable truth was that Xin was no weakling.

"I was fighting the mobs to get here, when I wasn't looking, the two jumped me from behind after I had finished using a Blade Skill."

"I see..." Still it was worrying that the PK'ers were now getting into the dungeons as well, though maybe they were just the small fry that were too arrogant on their first attempted kill. In any case we still needed to get to the path filled with mobs, if we didn't take care of it then clearing progress could be hindered for weeks on end.

"So, as I said before, what we're going to try to do today is take out a corridor of mobs, however it also seems to be the corridor that leads directly to the boss room, because of this I thought we could work together and try to destroy the mobs blocking the way."

"Won't they just respawn if we kill them off?" Argo posed the question.

"Unlikely, as of now it's probably a special event sort of area where they're purposely blocking the way to the boss room." The odds that the difficulty of the game would ramp up so drastically all of a sudden were slim to none, whereas an event corridor would be much more likely.

"So how are we approaching it? Running in and attacking will just get us all killed." Xin threw in.

I nodded. "We haven't even seen the area yet, let's take a look and see if we can use anything to our advantage, usually this kind of game would have a special way to take care of it."

The two nodded, or rather Argo nodded and in the process punched Xin in the head. "Let's get going then. I'll meet you both there."

And without another word she was off, running into the dungeon on her own, leaving me and Xin together.

"You sure we should let her go alone? The same thing could happen to her you know."

I thought about how Argo could be surrounded by PK'ers like Xin... then logic kicked in. "Those kind of people wouldn't hang around this dungeon for long, even murderers have a sense of self preservation. The ones that attacked you only came in because they found you alone and able to push your way into the dungeon. And in any case you and I both know that Argo one person who PK'ers would never mess with, even criminals need information."

And so we continued into the dungeon.

-Floor 4 Dungeon: Deep Lurking Caverns-

Xin and I were walking along the corridor slowly following the corridor, we had been following the path for about half an hour now. We knew Argo was still alright because she hadn't sent any party messages nor had we heard anything unusual.

"So." I began, quite relaxed as we fought a another of the Black Lizard mobs, despite not fighting together much our teamwork wasn't shabby at all. "How have you been getting along Xin?"

My partner landed a vertical slash, finishing off the mob before answering. "Just fine, nothing has really happened since..." he hesitated, looking at the ring on my finger. "You know..."

Indeed I did, ever since the first floor my name had been synonymous with the word Beater I didn't know what was worse, being given dirty glares every time I walked down the street in a town or having fake admirers from people claiming that they knew my, "true purpose." Either way it was tiring being mobbed wherever I went.

"What's done is done, you should just count yourself lucky that nobodies seen me together with neither you nor Argo, if it had come to that you would never get another day of peace." I said, continuing an assault on the lizard in front of me, it's hp now down to the red zone.

"What level are you right now anyways?" Xin threw out the question while finishing off the mob. The usual reward window popped up, alongside another window that informed me that I had leveled up.

"As of just now, level 22."

"Only? Knowing you I would have thought that you were at least 25 by now."

I didn't respond. I hadn't bothered to level much after the 1st floor incident; many of the monsters were still too low leveled to make much of a difference to me. I doubt that I'm going to have to put in much time leveling until at least the 6th floor, and even then I would still be over-leveled compared to the other clearers.

"It doesn't matter does it? After all last time I checked you're still two levels below me so it's fine." That would get him to stop questioning me.

"Listen Saito, I know that you wanted to take the anger of those beginner players yourself, but you're not the only Beta-Tester in the game you know. Argo and I help you out because we know that if we don't, you'll just selfishly go off and get yourself killed."

I clenched my teeth, like I didn't think about that kind of thing everyday. "And what can you do about it? The moment I said those words and closed those doors on the first floor was the moment the entire remainder of the population to hate me Xin. I didn't ask for everybody to despise me nor do I care."

I felt Xin grab my collar before glaring at me. "You don't care?" His blue eyes were like ice chips. "You know, we don't have to help you but we do, know why?"

What a pointless gesture, probably because it could be advantageous, or some kind of spiel about friendship. "I don't particularly care to know..."

He wrenched my collar so that his face was barely an inch from mine. "Because the hate of those people that you bear, if you're gone who's going to take it, dumbass?"

There see, it was for their own adva- wait, what?

"You play a more pivotal role than you know, you're hated, but that's what keeps the other players going, they see you as an obstacle, they want to surpass you. You're just lucky that a large majority of them are knuckleheaded enough to think that you're a selfish bastard. Argo and I don't, so just get over yourself why don't you?!"

I looked at him, startled by the outburst. Was it true? I had never thought about myself being more then just another person trapped in this death-game, yet here I was being told that I was a great deal more.

"Take it to heart Saito, that people use you as a marking stone. People chase after you hoping that one day, they can finally touch your retreating figure."

"..." Silence greeted the words as Xin let go of my collar. Was this what I wanted to do? Have everybody race after me like some sort of unattainable goal? Back on the first floor, I treated it like it wasn't something that even warranted my attention, now I understood... Beater it was somebody to be hated, to be despised, and to strive to surpass.

"Thank you, Xin." I called out to him, he was already walking deeper into the dungeon and the only indication that he had heard was a slight shaking of his head, but that was enough.

-Floor 4 Dungeon: Deep Lurking Cavern-Endless Corridor-

After another few minutes of walking without encountering any mobs, we finally found Argo who was leaning against the wall half asleep in a Neutral Zone a place where monsters couldn't spawn. It was a sort of rest stop for players who didn't want to return directly to town and simply needed a place to rest for awhile, however it also lacked any kind of shop or recovery system and could only be used for an hour. In short, a Neutral Zone was little more than a cave without mobs.

"She's... asleep..." Xin seemed dumbfounded. He reached out with his hand to wake her up when I stopped him.

"You might want to leave this to me... sometimes waking her up can be... hazardous." He seemed confused but didn't argue as I stepped forward.

"Hey... Wake up Argo." I tapped her on the shoulder, she was clearly about to doze off. The moment I touched her however, her eyes flew open and her claws were halfway to my neck before I grabbed her wrist.

"Really you have to do something about that habit of yours, what would have happened if Xin had woken you up?" Argo looked up at me with bleary eyes and yawned before answering.

"Then it would have been..." she stretched out "his fault." she finished as she stood up. "So you're finally here eh? I've finished mapping up ahead and you're not going to like it." With the familiar motion of swinging down her middle and index finger to open up the menu, she quickly traded me the mapping data. A landmark moment for someone like Argo who would usually charge me for this kind of thing. Looking into the map I saw nothing unusual until...

"A straight path?" On the map in front of me was a direct path that led straight to somewhere off map, however Argo had apparently turned back halfway according to the mapping data.

"Yup, and that's probably our problem right now, there's a phenomenal amount of mobs there. Even with my AGI stat I couldn't get more than a little ways in."

"Well we should at least see what it's like..." I began to follow the map to the hallway, Argo and Xin following behind me. What greeted me was something I wasn't prepared for.

"Told you To-To."

Stretched in front of me was a long hallway type area, a door large set of double doors could clearly be seen about a hundred meters or so down-the boss room. However what was truly amazed me was the sheer amount of mobs in between. They covered the ground between me and the door, covering up every inch of free space. Among them included the Black Lizards that we had fought to get here and various other field mobs as well.

"Okay... we have a problem..."

-Save State 3 End-


	4. Save State 4: Lost My Precious Lifeline

Save State 4: Boss Fight

I had to admit, I was hard for even me to believe that we would b able to reach the boss door on the other side of the hallway. Looking at the corridor was like looking at a drain completely plugged with gunk. Everywhere you would look there was another mob blocking the way…

"How the hell are we supposed to get through that?!" Xin yelled into my ear.

"Before you deafen me…" I began rubbing my head. "There's a possibility that we could have a special event way to clear it…" though by the looks of it there wasn't. I was just grasping at straws. There wasn't any other path nor were there any secret passages by the looks of it.

"If we really have to bust through that, we won't be doing it alone…" remarked Argo from behind me. "I can call up some allies, what about you two?"

Xin opened up his menu and started to rapidly select names. "Of course, we can get the other clearers to help out as well."

The two stared at me expectantly.

"I-I don't have any other people on my friend list…" I could feel my embarrassment on my virtual face. As I mentioned before, the only two people on my friend list were Xin and Argo.

"Well… I have about 3 or 4 people who could come…" Argo said to Xin, trying to change the subject off of me.

"I have about 6 or 7, along with the other clearers we should have around 20 people." Xin followed up.

"20 but how many of them are actually going to be useful and how many those are going to risk their life and equipment going through that?"

"Well… that's something we'll have to be ready for." Xin responded.

I brushed my hand through my hair. "And what if nobody wants to fight with us? What then? It would be better if I disappeared before everybody came. I'm just the dirty Beater remember?"

I gave Xin a look, signaling that he should just leave with Argo, he didn't argue. Argo however, had different ideas.

"And what will you do?"

"I'll do what I've been doing, go solo." I was pretty sure that I had enough healing items to last me for a sufficient time. And if I didn't… well that would just a bridge I crossed when it came.

-2 Hours Later-

A buzz ran through the crowd of about 18 people as they all gathered. Most were looking at the corridor filled with the corrosive lizard-type mobs. Me? I was hiding outside of the Neutral Zone here they were all gathered. After all it wouldn't do for the meeting to have failed before it even started now would it?

Keeping in touch with Argo who was observing the meeting while Xin explained the situation, I found out that only about half of the original comers would help. Considering the risks I was surprised that even that many would assist us, I quickly used my Hiding skill to blend into the dark background. Hiding depended on two things, your skill level and where you attempted to hide. In a bright field Hiding chance would be brought down by 50%, in a dark or shady room it would be brought up by 50%.

As the second group of people came out, the people who would help I assumed, I saw Argo and Xin and quickly messaged them as to tell them where I was hiding. After everything had settled down, I quickly equipped a long cloak with a hood to hide who I was and began to listen to Xin who was explaining how we, the 12 people who would fight, would be positioned.

"I want everybody to form party's, 4 groups of 3 with a leader of each one who will take charge of their party." People all around me began to bring up menu's to form parties, I almost panicked, I couldn't form a party with anybody here! Then a window appeared in front of me, an invitation from Argo. I quickly tapped the blue circle to confirm and I found that Xin and Argo were my other party members.

"Everybody done?" Xin gave me an inconspicuous wink from his position. "Then we're going to start. A team out first! B team, C Team, thrust through quickly and come from the sides for a pincer attack!"

The groups rushed forward, switching out as one member tired and moved back to heal as a new fresh member took his place. Leave it to Argo to come up with such a strategy.

"We're going to be back up support if needed, if a team begins to get overwhelmed we can rush in and strike." Just as Xin said that a fresh wave threatened to topple A Team.

"Blade Skill: Lateral Eagle."

I charged in with my attack to cut through a Black Lizard that had been lunging at one of the members of group A, shaving away it's hp as it shattered into shards.

"Don't falter!" I shouted, moving on to another target. The next few minutes were a blur as I lashed out at anything that came too close, the sound of shattering mobs was everywhere. First I saw another member of this raid, then Xin then Argo. Each disappearing into the crowd of mobs as soon as they had appeared.

"Blade Skill: Circling Eagle!" I ripped through a circle around me, only for more to take the place of the ones I had destroyed. Two jumped forward while another pair spat the corrosive acid at me. Unable to avoid it all, I chose to dash back from the acid, taking the two attacks from the lizards behind me instead. My hp bar dropped into the yellow zone.

"Blade Skill: Vicious Spike!"

The skill drove my sword straight through the two lizards behind me, skewering them. Still, no time to celebrate, I took out the two who had spat acid in a similar fashion and pulled out a Healing Crystal that restored my full hp before rushing into the fight again.

"On your left!" The shout reached my ears a second before an acid attack blew by me. I quickly took out the mob and shouted a thanks back to whomever it was.

By now we had broken through almost 3/4 of the corridor, however even I was beginning to tire, the others were completely ragged. I found Xin right next to me for a moment.

"We can't go on fighting like this…" I hissed into his ear.

"I know. But we're so close...!"

I though about our options, 1 we could retreat for now and try to come up in a better strategy and more members. This option however would cause us to have to no doubt have to restart this corridor over again. 2 we could keep charging forward in hopes that we reached the boss door, but even then could we beat it while this exhausted?

Argo then appeared behind us both looking slightly worn and her cloak torn in several places, but overall completely fine. "Are we charging forward or retreating?"

I gritted my teeth for a moment, the chances were this would be the best chance we got…

"Rush for the door, whichever three people arrive at it first. can start attacking from behind the group."

Wordlessly, the two nodded in unison, did I mention how creepy that was? However there wasn't any time to think about it as a new type of mob, a Lizard Knight came to attack me from the side. It was level 16, a step up from the rest of the mobs on this floor…

"Get… out… of… the… way!" I burst forward on the last word, cutting through the monster and causing half of its hp to disappear. I twisted back around and took a stance to activate a Blade Skill.

"Blade Skill: Twin Eagles!" A rapid jab from both sides formed a two hit combo that dissolved the mob into shards.

"Charge the doors!" I heard Xin yell from up front. We had ended up thinning out enough monsters to be able to run for it. The others were already far ahead thanks to the knight delaying me.

"Hurry up Sai-" Xin stopped calling my name, realizing that the others would definitely recognize it.

"Movement Skill: Dash." The system assisted me in accelerating, I dodged past various mobs that tried to stop me, slashing some out of the way and avoiding others. After taking about a quarter of my hp in damage, I finally reached the door after leaving about 20 more mobs behind me.

"Let's hurry up and get in, this boss isn't very easy to beat." Before Xin could ask me what I meant the door closed and torches on the walls lit up; the sudden light made everybody squint as we observed the room. It resembled a common Japanese dojo, in the center stood a single human-like mob. This was the beginning of the humanoid monsters...

Zeta, Lizardman Knight, Level 20

"It's smaller than I thought it would be..." came another clearer's voice. It would be foolish to assume it's strength based on it's size, in fact, humanoid monsters were even more dangerous then normal mobs. Argo fell back to stand next to me.

"Come to think of it this was the first floor with a humanoid boss wasn't it?" She seemed slightly nervous, I couldn't find it in me to blame her. Humanoid mobs were known to have a higher level of intelligence and also a broader range of Blade Skill's.

"Stay in your formation, keep in teams and make sure you switch around just like before! D Team will lead the attack." He drew his two handed sword and ran forward, Argo and I on either side of him. The boss itself drew a sword that curved off at the end, along with a large kite shield that would block a lot of our attacks. Xin's attack ended up slamming into that very shield, causing a shower of sparks.

At the same time Argo curved around from the other side to strike at the humanoid boss with a 6-hit claw skill Bloody Shower Only 2 of the entire combo struck, it left Argo in a frozen state where I was forced to block the attack of Zeta. The force of it forced me down on a knee, and even then I could barely stop it. The creature then proceeded to fling off Xin's attack, it gave me the opportunity to fling the sword away and knock the thing back, straight into another group that had taken it's position.

"That thing's way too strong for just a single group." Argo said to me. I had to agree, That attack would have crushed anybody here if it wasn't blocked. The other group had already pushed the boss onto another team. So far it had only taken about a quarter of one health bar in damage, and it had 3 of them.

"What about a combined attack?" Suggested Xin who had come back. "That way we could try to seal off it's escape, and at least one of our combo's will land." The idea was reasonable and we could probably pull it off, the boss was now trying to take out the 3rd and final team besides us.

"Hey, Saito it's time we put our plan into action!"

I watched as Xin once again charged Zeta, I made sure to dash to the opposite side of him, now we were charging from both sides. Maybe he could block us both with his sword and shield, but he wouldn't be able to stop Argo's attack from behind. Two simultaneous clang's sounded as our weapons clashed against the boss'.

"Now Argo!" Our partner heard and delivered, once again launching into a quick 4-hit Claw Skill: Savage Mangle. After managing to score 4 consecutive hits the boss fell forward from the surprise back attack, allowing me and Xin to finish up with simultaneous slashes. The boss was now down one health bar.

"Great! Let's keep at it with that." Xin remarked, indeed this strategy seemed to be our best chance at victory with the least casualties. Already the next team was coming at it with the same strategy, of course to a somewhat reduced effect but still working nonetheless.

By the time the boss got back to us it was down to just one life-bar. Pulling the same combo again Xin landed his slash first, but as the boss' health dropped below a quarter of it's last bar I saw it's eyes glow red and it's mouth open wide in my direction before spitting out a large amount of the corrosive acid at me, I dodged at the last moment, pivoting on my ankle to finish off the boss.

"Blade Skill: Twin Eagles." In a last ditch attempt to stop me the boss once again spewed out the corrosive acid at my attack, ignoring it I continued on to make two slashes at the boss, both connecting and reducing the boss' hp to zero. It was over..

"Uuuoooohhh!"

"We won!"

"One more floor cleared!"

The exultant cries of victory rang across the room, the multicolored shards that were the only remains of the boss scattered throughout the room gleaming in the now lit up room as various windows showed up next to everybody.

"Nice fight." Xin patted me on the back, I smiled back at him. "Yeah, we got through this time with relatively few people, next is the 5th floor."

"Exactly what I want to hear, I know plenty about the 5th floor already." Argo came up behind us, I sighed, she was already back to selling information.

*CRACK* I heard the sound from below me. I looked down to see my Acuminous Blade.

"What was that?" Xin asked.

"I don't kn-" I stopped abruptly as the beautiful white sword broke in the middle, and shattered into a million multicolored shards of light.

-Save State 4: End-


	5. Save State 5: Hesitation

Save State 5: Hesitation

I stared blankly at the spot in my hand where my Acuminous Blade had been only moments before, not quite comprehending what had just happened for a few moments. Then I realized that the weapon that had been with me since the first floor was gone.

"W-What the...?" Xin spluttered from his position next to me. Argo also stopped to stare at the fluttering shards of my sword.

"It must have been that last attack.." I muttered. The corrosive properties of this floor's monsters must have carried on to the boss' attack... I didn't realize, and now my weapon was gone.

"Hey, what's wrong?" One of the other member's of the group called over from a distance.

"N-Nothing! Just examining what drops we got from the boss!" I shouted back. It wouldn't be good if I had to tell them what kind of weapon I had lost. The Acuminous Blade had become something of a trademark for recognizing me, it was simply luck that nobody had noticed the flashing white weapon in the midst of the boss battle.

"How long do you plan to keep this secret? You're going to have to get some other sort of weapon you know!" Argo whispered loudly in my ear. She was right though, without a weapon nobody would last long in this world, and in this situation where our real life depended on our virtual life, that wasn't an option.

Then Xin gasped right next to me. "Hey wait, you got the last hit right? If you're lucky you could get a new weapon!"

I blinked for a moment before turning to look at the windows that surrounded me, drops, battle report, party status... Here we go, Last Attack Bonus

"What... is this?" The words rolled out of my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. My two companions crowded around me, curious to see why I said that.

"What's wrong?"

"It's... this item..." The window looked normal, the icon next to the item indicated that it was indeed a weapon, but as for the name...

"Why is it all question marks!?" Xin cried. I had been hoping for some kind of weapon, even a two handed sword would have done for a bit, but this was unexpected. Even in the beta test items had always been named so that they were easily identifiable, however, not only was this LA bonus not clearly labeled, it didn't even have a name! All that was there was ?

Argo looked at the window before giving her judgment. "I think this was revealed in the last stages of the Beta Test, close to the 8th floor there were a few items that had this same kind of marking." she started.

"And? What would this kind of marking mean?" I asked, if Argo had an explanation than I wanted to know.

"Simply put, they're ,Identify Items." I took a minute to digest the term while Argo explained them, Identify Items "Basically they're items that have to be revealed using a crafter's Appraise Skill."

"Why would there be such a troublesome item in this game? There's no point is there?" Making an item from such an early floor so difficult to obtain, there wasn't any point was there? And crafters were rare thanks to the the lack of investment in battle skills in a game where fighting was necessary for survival.

"The thing is..." Argo paused. "These kinds of items often have special features, be it stats, looks, or even Equipment Skills."

"Equipment Skills...?" I repeated, never having heard of this function.

In this world there were 3 types of skills that I knew of. First up were Blade Skills these were the skills that we used in combat, the normal way to deal large amounts of damage at once using the System Assist

Next up were Movement Skills skills where activating them could assist you in moving your body in amazing ways. Mach speed running, wall jumping, landing safely from impossible heights, all of these feats and more were possible with Movement Skills

Third were what I called Utility Skills the abilities that allowed people to do everyday things like cooking, fishing, and woodcutting. And of course in this case, appraising and crafting items and equipment.

Now Argo was telling me that a 4th type of skill, Equipment Skills existed. I had no idea that they even were implemented in the system until now...

"We should move onto the next floor, opening the gate is our responsibility after we've beaten the boss." Xin called out to the group. "People are going to be waiting to take the Safe Zone Gate to the next floor after getting the floor clear notification."

Something else that had been implemented from the second floor onward was the usage of Safe Zone Gates teleport platforms located inside safe towns that would transfer you from one floor to the next, saving time and also allowing the not very combat oriented craftsmen to move to the next floor.

"In the meantime, we should just follow everybody to the next floor, there might be an NPC craftsman who can identify this item there."

Xin nodded. "Good idea, I'll see you guys on the next floor then I suppose." He began to walk towards the double doors that framed an entrance to the next floor.

"Of course, try to open up the gate as soon as you can, I want to try to find a person who can appraise this as soon as I can." I replied as I closed the windows displaying the prizes from the boss. With the money I had accumulated I could have easily bought another weapon that would be noticeably worse but functional nonetheless, however this Identify Item had caught my interest. Then I opened up another window on my menu, the party window, it was time to end this party.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Argo looked at my menu with a strange expression.

"Quitting the party, I'm playing solo remember?"

"I see... well don't hesitate to call us up again if you feel like you need some help." Argo slapped me on the back.

I rubbed the spot where she had hit, my hp had even gone down a few points... "Of course not, see you soon." She simply smiled back in response before running to catch up to Xin. It was time for me to go too, we would emerge in a safe zone so it would be easier for me just to proceed directly to the 5th floor.

-2 Day's Later-

The wind blew strongly over the open fields of the 5th floor, some areas were like a sierra and others were grasslands. Thankfully the dungeon itself was just a forest, and the monsters only inflicted the Bleeding status effect. Currently I was walking in the main square of the town, Kiran. Despite the two days that I had been searching for a craftsman to appraise my Identify Item nobody seemed to have a high enough skill level to do it, however today I was searching for a craftsman who was said to already have a skill level of 300/1000, almost double the normal average of 160/1000.

Rumors had been circulating ever since we had reached the 5th floor and today I would see if I could verify them. Before long I was standing in front of the shop that was located in a small alley. Well perhaps shop was a bit of a stretch, it was pretty much a Merchant Carpet inside a small indent of the wall. A merchant carpet allowed somebody to sell items without fear of theft by another.

"Hello? Anybody here?" My voice echoed in the small alley. Seems like nobody was here…

Until a crash echoed from a previously darkened corner. A large amount of materials dropped down to make a rather cacophonous noise.

"What the…?" A figure stumbled out of the rubble. It was a girl, that much as clear from the working dress and petite figure. She seemed to notice me as looked up from the floor.

"Ah… H-hello there, may I help you?"

I stared for a moment at the small figure who had stumbled out of the pile of things on the ground before responding. She had dark shoulder length brown hair, the funny thing was she had a part of it grown out longer than the rest as it draped over the right side of her face.

"Um yes… I'd just like to ask… what's your Crafting skill level?"

She seemed reluctant to say anything however, as her forest-green eyes looked at the ground.

"I-It's only 180…" though she seemed hesitant about her answer. I could tell from her face that she was lying.

"So… I thought that this Anneal Blade couldn't be crafted without a level of a least 200" I grabbed the sword from off the carpet with my hand, without a doubt the weapon itself was done nicely and maintained with care.

"T-That's not true!" She grabbed the sword from my hands and held it to her chest. "What do you know anyways? You're just another random player who doesn't understand anything!"

I was at a loss, what was her problem? Trying to be courteous I attempted to ask her politely. "Miss, I'm just here to ask if you know of a certain crafter that I've heard of through some rumor's."

She looked at me through shifty eyes before answering. "The crafter with an uncommon skill level right...? I've heard of them, why?"

"Of course, because I need their help, why else would I ask?"

"I don't appreciate sarcasm."

"A-Ah, sorry, could you please direct me to this person?" I mentally kicked myself for being so discourteous while trying to ask her something.

The girl stared at me apprehensively before finally speaking. "Fine, but you need to do something for me first." she materialized what I recognized as a text tablet in front of her before typing down her message.

"What are you typing?"

"Just this." She pushed the window over to me, on it was a list of materials. 20 Wind Bee Stingers, 10 Desert Golem Cores, 30 Forest Wolf Teeth...

"What would you need all this for?" The amount of materials she had handed me would've been enough to fully craft and enhance any common sword twice over.

"Obviously so I can continue my business." The air of smugness could practically be seen around her. The last thing I wanted to do was help this girl out but she was the only direct lead I had gotten so far.

"Well if I'm to gather these for you I'm going to need a weapon... could you lend me one?" The brunette contemplated me for a moment. I could tell what she was thinking: unreliable. I really couldn't blame her, compared to some of the veritable giants in this game, my white hair and slim build probably screamed weak.

"Fine, but don't expect to get anything valuable." She ended up rummaging through her inventory for a moment before throwing me a Clean that is, not upgraded, Ripping Edge. It wasn't a bad sword per say, but it wasn't hard to do better.

"Give me 6 hours and I'll be back with what's on the list." Truthfully it would've only taken me about 5, but then there wasn't any reason to rush was there? The girl I was talking to however, begged to differ.

"Don't give me that, even a full party would take 4 hours!"

I chuckled to myself, maybe it was time to press an advantage. "How's this, not only will I do it in 6 hours, I'll do it in under 5. If I do then not only will you direct me to this smith, but also help me out with my upgrades in the future, deal?"

"Deal." There was zero hesitation in the voice that replied. "And if you can't, then you have to get me twice those materials and be my delivery boy for a week." She was completely confident with herself, that much was clear.

The deal was sealed.

-4 & 1/2 Hours later-

I smiled victoriously as I opened up the trade window and dumped 4 hours worth of hunting into the trade window along with the borrowed weapon. The greatest reward had to be the flabbergasted look on the girls face as I hit the button to confirm the trade.

"Y-You! What!? I- I don't even..!" The stuttering girl seemed unable to form words.

"I told you I would finish wouldn't I? Now can you direct me to the unusually skilled smith please?" I tried to ask in a polite tone.

The girl however, seemed to be panicking, what was the problem? It's not like I was asking her for anything lewd or disrespectful, just some directions...

"It's me."

My mind went blank for a bit. "It's you..." the fact took a few seconds to be absorbed into my head. "You're that player smith that everybody's been spreading rumors about?"

She nodded, not looking in my direction at all. "What is it? Not good enough for you?"

A small smirk rose on my face.

"I see then, can you help me appraise this?" I formed the Identify Item in my hand, it had taken the shape of a small ball of data. The girl looked hesitant but took it nonetheless. She walked into her shop a little ways and placed it on what I recognized as a Workman's Bench or in this case, workwoman's. When she was about to begin I grabbed her hand.

"Just a second, can I get your name? I find it weird to ask somebody for help without their name."

She stopped for a second, looking hesitant before finally answering. "Clair." Was all she said, she stopped, clearly waiting for me to respond.

"I'm Saito, nice to meet you Clair." A curt nod and exchanging of friend information later, we were back to appraising.

"Now this may result in the item being destroyed... so don't blame me alright?" She seemed to be nervous about the whole thing. I realized that this must have been the first time she had done something like this, Identify Items weren't something that appeared commonly at least.

"Of course not, just please try your best." I tried to ease off the pressure, though the truth was I was just as nervous as she was.

A few seconds and a deep breath later, a bright green light surrounded the little orb. It gradually began to change shape until...

-Save State 5: End-


End file.
